


Odds and Ends

by rockymountainvixen



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Gen, Multi, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22624987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockymountainvixen/pseuds/rockymountainvixen
Summary: Tales of Arcadia drabbles that were originally posted to tumblr.
Relationships: Barbara Lake/Nomura, Barbara Lake/Walter Strickler | Stricklander, Draal/Nomura (Tales of Arcadia), Kanjigar/Barbara Lake, Steve Palchuk/Aja Tarron, Toby Domzalski/Jim Lake Jr./Claire Nuñez
Comments: 14
Kudos: 73





	1. After work

Barbara cursed as she dropped her keychain while fumbling at the door.

Work today had been exhausting, now she just wanted to relax and put her feet up. Finally managing to get the key in the lock she opened the door and headed in.

Jim was spending the night at a friends house, which she was perfectly fine with. She would never want him to miss having fun with his friends just to take care of her. But Barbara would be lying if she said that she wouldn’t prefer one of Jim’s homecooked meals to a frozen burrito.

Stepping into the kitchen to get the microwave dinner she’d resigned herself to, Barbara was taken completely off guard when a warm ceramic bowl was placed in her hands.

“Soup, French onion,” Walter flashed her a smile from his position adjacent to the stove, holding a bowl of his own “Probably not as good as young Atlas makes, but I like to think it’s a close second,”

Smlie tugging at the corners of her mouth, Barbara raised the bowl to her lips to take a sip and pretended to think it over “Well it’s not the same as how Jim makes it…”

She stepped in close to give him a peck on the cheek “But it’s pretty darn tasty,”

“Glad to hear it passes muster,” Walter picked up two spoons and wrapped an arm around her shoulders “Now would the lady care to enjoy her soup on the couch to the latest episode of the BBC drama that I know she adores?”

Barbara giggled “Dinner and a show, you’ll spoil me,”

“Nothing less than you deserve Barbara,”

They took a seat on the couch, Walter tapping the remote a few times until the theme music started playing. Barbara leaned against his shoulder, all the tension from the day melting away.

“Walt?”

“Yes,”

“Do you mind doing the thing?”

He grinned “Happy to oblige,”

A flash of green energy enveloped him, a second later Barbara was enclosed by a stony bat-like wing.

She snuggled into his side, extra cosy now “Have I ever told you how great you are?”

Walter chuckled “You may have mentioned it once or twice,” he said in a gravely rasp that was nevertheless filled with warmth.

“Well I’m saying it again,”


	2. Teen antics

Lawrence, known as coach to most of the teenagers of Arcadia, wiped his shoes carefully on the mat as he came in. Naomi just let him move in with her and Steve last month and he was still getting used to the much muddier walkway. Even Steve, normally messy as he was, never tracked dirt in.

Speaking of Steve…

Glancing down at the shoes lining the front hallway, Lawrence did a double take when he noticed the smaller, scuffier shoes next to Steve’s pristine Nikes.

He was still processing the implications of this when he heard Steve’s voice from the direction of the living room.

“C'mon Aja just a little more,”

Aja, one of the transfer students, the sports princess. What was Steve doing home alone with her?

“I’m trying,” Aja’s voice, she sounded strained “Almost there,”

The pieces clicked into place.

Lawrence charged towards the living room, cursing himself for not realizing it sooner. Two teens with a house to themselves, of course they were going to try for a round of the hanky panky. Well not on his watch.

He burst through the door “Hold it right there!”

Aja and Steve blinked at him.

Lawrence blinked back, well this was…unexpected.

Both Aja and Steve were fully clothed and standing upright, technically. Aja was in an athletic stance, knees slightly bent, feet shoulder length apart. Both arms held above her head to support Steve’s reclining form.

“Oh, uh…hi kids, what…are you guys doing?”

Steve looked up at him and grinned brightly “We were seeing if Aja could deadlift me,” he turned to give her a dreamy look “You’re so awesome,”

Aja smiled back up at him “I would carry you to the ends of the universe my oaf,”

All of Lawrence’s years of teaching experience and teenagers still managed to baffle him.

“Well…as long as you’re safe, you guys want me to take your picture?”

“That would be lively!”


	3. Passenger

Waltolomew Stricklander had faced many dangers in his life. Fending off assasination attempts from fellow chanelings that had ambition but lacked scruples, trolls would have liked nothing more than to pop his skull like a grape, absorbing the bulk of Bular’s anger when things didn’t go his way. Needless to say, after everything he’d survived, it took quite a bit to ruffle Walter Strickler’s feathers.

However this was doing the trick.

“Slow down before you kill us both!”

Blinky laughed, sounding every bit the mad troll “And risk getting there late, not on your life!”

“Better late than dead!”

“Oh pish posh,” Blinky waved him off with two out of four hands, the other two still gripping the steering wheel “No need for the dramatics, I know exactly what I’m doing, Master Jim taught me himself,”

“Jim just has a learners permit, he’s hardly in any position to–”

“Shortcut!”

His words were cut off as Blinky veered sharply to the right. Dread curdled in Strickler’s stomach as he saw the increasing amount of construction signs and warning tape in the new direction they were heading.

Resigning himself to his fate, Strickler prayed that whoever hosted his funeral wouldn’t let Otto perform the eulogy.


	4. Unmasked

“Don’t move!”

The thing froze, eyeing the end of the shotgun she was pointing in his direction.

Barbara took in deep breaths, she tried to keep her hands from shaking. An itchy trigger finger is not what she needed right now.

“I’m only asking this once. Where. Is. Chris?”

The creature reached behind his back.

“I said don’t move!”

He froze, the expression on his face looking almost apologetic. As apologetic as an eight foot tall horned monster in silver armor could look “I’m sorry, but I need to do this to show you the truth,”

Barbara narrowed her eyes “One hand, slowly, and if I see any funny business you’re going to get a face full of buckshot,”

She didn’t really know if her shotgun could do anything to hurt him, but at this point bluffing was her only option.

The creature slowly reached behind him and pulled out a simple wooden mask, raising it to cover his own face.

A flash of green light enveloped the creature and then Chris was standing in front of her. Looking just the way he did when he wandered into the hospital that morning two months ago.

Barbara was so stunned she nearly dropped the shotgun “Chris! How– Why–”

“Barbara….I’m so sorry,”

Another flash of light and the creature was there holding the mask again “This…is my true form,”

She took her finger off the trigger but tightened her grip on the gun, gritting her teeth together to hold back a scream. Barbara thought she was done with this, having the rug pulled out from under by a man she had given her heart to. But here she was again ten years later.

“Explain. Now.”

The creature– Chris sighed “To begin, my real name is Kanjigar…”


	5. Light

Morgana opened the small door.

Pristine fruits sat upon a crystal shelf illuminated by cool, flameless light.

She shut the door, paused briefly, and opened it again.

The inside remained bright.

“How do you know that the light extinguishes once the door is shut?”

The girl with the blue in her hair, Claire she said her name was, stepped over to the cold box. “There’s a switch, see,”

She pressed a button in the front of the box that Morgana hadn’t noticed before. Immediately the light vanished, leaving the interior of the box dark and shadowy. Then she released the button and just as quickly the light returned.

“It’s designed so that when the door is shut it holds the switch down and shuts off the light,” Claire explained “Does that make sense?”

Curious, Morgana pressed the switch, darkening the inside of the cold box once again “Fascinating,”


End file.
